Reason Why Some People Are Born With Small Holes Above Their Ears

A small amount of people – less than one per cent of the UK population – are born with small holes above their ears.

The proper name for this rare condition is a preauricular sinus – the holes are ‘nodules, dents, or dimples’ that are visible around the external ear where a person’s face meets the ear cartilage.

So why are they there?

Technically they’re a hereditary birth defect, first documented by scientist Van Heusinger back in 1864.

Around half of those affected have holes on just one side while the other half can find them on both.According to evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin, one theory for the strange holes is that they’re an “evolutionary remnant of fish gills”, reports Business Insider.

If you have a preauricular sinus thankfully it’s nothing to worry about.

The worst case scenario would be for the holes to become infected, which would be relatively easy to deal with using a course of antibiotics.

The number of people with the birth defect in the US is even less, while in Asia and parts of Africa the figure is between four and ten per cent of the population.

We previously reported on the reason stickers on fruit and veg have numbers on them.